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My new AES has a death-grip on cartridges - what can I do?

wowbobwow

wowbobwow

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Hi Arcaders!

Earlier this week I bought my first Neo Geo AES, and I seriously could not be more psyched. After a lifetime of daydreaming, I finally have one! However, this particular AES has a very odd quirk. The previous owner let me know that it’s difficult to insert and remove the game carts, but I’m honestly shocked by how much force I had to apply to get a game to “sit” fully in the slot.

Once a cartridge is inserted, trying to remove it requires so much effort that I’m genuinely worried I’m going to crack something. I’ve watched YouTube videos where other AES owners can insert and remove cartridges fairly easily (one hand on the game + one hand on the AES), while I’m over here literally bracing the console against my feet on the floor to try to lever the cartridge back out. If it was just one cart I'd chalk it up to a fluke, but it's the same experience with all three games that came with my AES...

What can/should I do to make inserting and removing games less terrifying? Can the grip or tension of the twin cartridge slots be loosened? I've already ordered a 161-in-1 cart so maybe the ultimate solution will be "plunk a multicart in there and never take it out again" but I'd like to at least consider my options...

Thanks in advance!


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Probably someone replaced the cart slot with a third party one.
Original cart slots don't do this, either on MVS or AES.
 
Misos said:
Probably someone replaced the cart slot with a third party one.
Original cart slots don't do this, either on MVS or AES.
Click to expand...
That is certainly possible! Whoever owned it prior to the person I bought it from did some mods to it - they added an S-Video output and stereo (or at least dual mono?) RCA jacks to the back...

Someone on Reddit suggested using a bit of dielectric grease, which I initially took as a joke but now I'm seeing some reports that folks have done this for grippy NES carts, so now I'm wondering if it's a legit idea?
 
wowbobwow said:
That is certainly possible! Whoever owned it prior to the person I bought it from did some mods to it - they added an S-Video output and stereo (or at least dual mono?) RCA jacks to the back...

Someone on Reddit suggested using a bit of dielectric grease, which I initially took as a joke but now I'm seeing some reports that folks have done this for grippy NES carts, so now I'm wondering if it's a legit idea?-electric
Click to expand...
Dielectric grease is non conductive. That doesn't seem like a good idea inside a cartridge slot.
 
Can confirm that it’s easy to misalign the slots when replacing them (or building an AES from scratch).

If I was doing this again I’d attach the slots to a junk cart first, then use that as a jig to align the slots for soldering.

If the slots have been reworked it’s going to be very obvious, hand-soldering all those pins is going to leave a mark.

If there is a less invasive way (like deoxit) then I’d try that first.
 
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